Dissertation Research: Organizational Innovation in SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence: Ethnographic, Historical, and Policy Perspectives

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This dissertation project proposes research on the origins and development of SETI, a modern scientific field comprised of several highly innovative research programs and organizations. SETI (the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) is a branch of radio astronomy in which researchers utilize large radio telescopes, small satellite dishes, or optical telescopes to search for electromagnetic signals of intelligent origin. Study of this scientific field offers greater understanding of scientific organization, practice, and the relationship between science and the public. Specifically, this project posits that SETI is a unique scientific activity in which researchers are inventing: 1) new organizational forms; 2) new scientific practices infected by feedback from the public; and 3) new ways of engaging and enrolling the public in basic scientific research. SETI is a scientific activity that explicitly addresses issues of deep cultural significance. SETI researchers often point out that demonstrating the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent life would have profound effects upon cosmological, religious, and popular conceptions of our place in the universe. In part because of this, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) terminated direct funding for SETI programs in 1993. SETI scientists and researchers have therefore been forced to appeal directly to the public to obtain the funds, expertise, and other resources necessary to carry out search programs. This has resulted in a wide proliferation of innovative organizational forms within the SETI research community. This project will explore: 1) the diversity of organizational forms through which SETI research is carried out; 2) how these organizational contexts affect scientific practice; and 3) how these different organizational structures have cultivated/limited public involvement in SETI. This project proposes 11 months of field research to: 1) interview and interact with researchers affiliated with SETI organizations throughout the continental United States; 2) conduct archival research at organizations that have sponsored SETI research work; 3) participate in various public presentations, conventions, and conferences at which SETI scientists interact with members of the general public; and 4) map the ways that SETI is understood by enthusiasts and in popular culture. Primary data for this study will be collected through more than 40 in-depth, focused interviews conducted with SETI researchers, volunteers, and enthusiasts. In order to frame informants' perspectives within the larger historical and social context in which SETI research is done, interview data will be supplemented with ethnographic data and archival sources. This research design is built upon site visits and preliminary interviews conducted between March and October of 1999.